Lessons Learned

This post is an excerpt from my book “Thinking Aloud.” The theme continues to present itself in my conversations with leaders: how to share complex information and challenging perspectives candidly and constructively. I hope you enjoy the essay – and perhaps introduce the questions below as a way to start conversations with your teammates. – CAW

See a list of other posts in this series at Blog Post Series

Lesson’s Learned

 “For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings.” 

– William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of Richard the Second, Act 3, Scene 2.

This past week, I learned that a friend and mentor, Christian Bredo Berghoff, passed away some months ago.  Our world is a slightly darker place without Chris, and I wish to share a bit of what I learned from his words and his work.

Chris Berghoff liked to describe himself as a peddler.  He was also an entrepreneur, executive, and educator.  In 1985 he founded Control Products, Inc., and led it to international prominence as a designer and manufacturer of electronic components for industrial equipment in multiple industries.  (The firm is now a part of Emerson Climate Technologies.)  Control Products’ sustained success was driven in large part by its founder’s commitment and strategy: he built trust-based relationships on the basis of honorable conduct and faithful performance.  He was also a pretty good salesperson.

As much as any business leader I have known, Berghoff exhibited Ethical Leaders in Action’s Virtues of Ethical Leadership: Service, Competence, Creativity, Clarity, and Courage.  He practiced each of these, with great success.

Control Products succeeded by turning arms-length customers into shared-destiny, strategic allies.  It did so by being uncommonly open and honest, by establishing clear, mutual expectations, and by demonstrating the capacity to innovate and execute.  With its allies, the firm created, captured and shared real commercial value based on trust.  Chris extended that same commitment to openness and shared success with his employees, hiring with great care, investing in his people’s ongoing development and ensuring that the workplace was often a place for fun, as well.  He was always “cultivating his farm team,” building relationships with professionals he would hire when the time was right.  He was almost as proud of Control Products’ one-hole “golf course” and employee fitness facilities as he was of its customer list or lab facilities.

Doing business as Chris did – working with clients to create value through innovation – required courage and creativity.  It also required clarity and competence to identify opportunities, avoid pitfalls, and solve the problems that inevitably arose for a technology-oriented global enterprise.  Chris’s commitment to do business that way, and to engage and reward employees in so doing, also reflected his deep sense of service to others.  He was a cheerful capitalist who sought to share benefit with the stakeholders of his enterprise.

Chris was also a gifted and enthusiastic educator, teaching for many years at the University of Saint Thomas’s Opus College of Business. He presented to varied audiences, including a couple of events for the Hill Center for Ethical Business Leadership, the organization I was leading when I met Chris.  While he regarded his ethical practices as a competitive advantage, Chris was nonetheless eager to share them with others – advancing the practices of ethical business leadership one class, one audience, one leader at a time.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune obituary stated simply, “He was a valued business mentor to hundreds of students and colleagues.”  I am proud to count myself among them.

I am less proud of a final lesson that Chris taught me, however indirectly.  Over the past year, I tried to reach Chris to tell him about my current firm, Ethical Leaders in Action.  When he didn’t respond, I found myself making any number of assumptions.  Most were more about me than about him.  I now realize that he was quite busy: fighting cancer, caring for his family, participating in his community, and securing the future of his business.  Lesson learned, again.  I miss him.

Conversation Starters:

Mentors can teach us by example and by helping us to learn from their experiences as well as our own.  Mentorship is a remarkable gift.

• Who are your mentors?
• What do you learn from them, and how do you apply it in your work?
• How do you stay connected with them, and why?
• Have you ever thanked your mentors and teachers for their contributions to your life?

At Ethical Leaders in Action we believe that most, if not all people, can develop themselves to play leadership roles in many different spheres both large and small. The foundation of this development process is a short but powerful list of virtues which can be developed and improved through conscious effort. For more information feel free to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) which breaks these virtues down into features that can be individually developed. The results of the VELSI come with a quick reference guide to help you understand how the virtues and their individual features fit together. https://ethinact.com/velsi/

See a list of other posts in this series at Blog Post Series

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